26 July – 30 August

The first joint stage project of Herbert von Karajan and Giorgio Strehler was a new production of Die Zauberflöte. Though intended to form the cornerstone of a long collaboration, it proved to be a fiasco: Strehler’s attempt to exploit the full potential of the size and technology of the Grosses Festspielhaus led to a production so cluttered that there was no room left for the blocking. Karajan refused to conduct the production at the next year’s Festival, and a distraught Strehler withdrew from his Salzburg obligations, putting a premature end to the Mozart cycle. This year Thomas Bernhard had more success than in the anno horribilis of 1972. His new play, Die Macht der Gewohnheit, received its première in a staging by Dieter Dorn – his first appearance at the Festival. Once again there was a centenary celebration, this time to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Oscar Fritz Schuh praised the great poet’s merits in the ceremonial address.

1974: The premature demise of a Mozart cycle: Giorgio Strehler’s and Herbert von Karajan’s collaboration came to an end with Die Zauberflöte.